Hens

A house not far from me has a big pen of chickens in the front yard.   Stationed next to it is an old-fashioned gumball machine full of chicken feed.  For a quarter, you get a small handful of feed to toss through the wire to the hens, who are hip to the ritual and rush over as soon as they see anyone.  My friend Anne pointed out the gumball machine to me one day when we were taking a walk.  We thought it was just a fun thing to do, inventive on the part of the homeowners.

Yesterday I  noticed a sign dangling from the gumball machine.  The quarters from passersby have added up to 14 flocks of chickens being donated to people around the world by an organization called "Heifer International."  Each flock costs $20.

I investigated Heifer International online. Turns out you can donate the equivalent cost of  rabbits, geese, water buffalo (!), llamas, sheep, goats, and of course heifers, which comprised the very first shipment, in 1944, to Puerto Rico.  Recipients eat the eggs or milk or the animal and sign a contract agreeing to give the first offspring of the animal to another family.  Dan West, the founder of Heifer International, came up with the motto, "Give not a cup, but a cow."  The only critic I found online sounded like a crank and a vegetarian.